The show that I discovered is called “Magnificent Century”. It’s a history focused show that’s centered around the life of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire and his wife “Hürrem Sultan” who was a slave girl. Though there are some factual historic events throughout the series it should be noted that the series is a “historical drama”. Meaning that it typically takes real world events that occurred and will either create new characters or develop existing ones then place them in scenarios that may never have happened.

Cultural Aspects

In terms of the cultural aspects that I’ve noticed there were a few. One of the primary thing was that a large aspect of the characters were Muslim. This is noted due to the decor as well as the inclusion of külah’s and turbans, which both signify male ranking status. Episode one is centered around a woman named “Aleksandra” being delivered on a slave ship through the Black Sea to Istanbul where she joined said harem and converted to Islam dons a new name Hurrem. Much of the food shown in a dinner scene seemed to be broth, beef, and vegetables. Much of the show has slower paced music and dancing, one particular scene shows girls in the harem dancing in the presence of the Sultan. During this scene it was noted “we don’t need them to be smart, we need them to be well behaved”. At this point in this culture women were in traditional roles and had little to no ability to influence politics. The dancing and music seemed to be particularly traditional seemingly done with a flute and a lute with dances to match. Little of the landscape is actually shown but it seems people would travel by boat, horseback, and walking. Additionally, it seems as though the weather was typically very hot and due to this the characters would dress in robes which was essentially a form of carrying shade with them to cool themselves down.

Similarities and Differences

One of the most noticeable differences between my culture and this was the measurement of official wealth and power. In particular I’m referring to the many types of head dresses that males wore to signify their status. The commoners wore külah’s where as higher classes wore yusufi, örfi, katibi, and kavaze. Next, another difference is the inclusion of a “harem” with multiple concubines that is demonstrated to be a very common practice of high level societal members of the Ottoman Empire. Harem’s in particular refer to a specific part of the household that is meant to house female servants, concubines, and wives. The greatest similarity I’ve noticed between my own culture and the one shown was the way dinner was shown. It was shown that there would be a dish leading up to dinner, the dinner, and then desert shortly after. However, it should be noted that the foods I eat and the ones shown are prepared incredibly different with the dishes shown heavily being different forms of broth, beef and vegetables.